Long gone are the days when a business named themselves AAA in order to be the first company listed in their Yellow Pages category. Now businesses are rallying to get the coveted top rated spots on Google search engines in order to be the first company people call when they need a service.

So what does this mean to the little guy trying to get noticed? Digital Marketing.

Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is growing at such a rapid rate that many advertising experts including Borrell Associates are forecasting a drastic rise in this medium. Borell estimates that by 2018 online marketing will grow to five times the amount of newspaper advertising. Even The Yellow Pages have adjusted their services to accommodate the growing demand for online listings. 43 percent of their income comes from digital orders.

Targeted Display Ads

The beauty of digital and online marketing is the ability to use technology to track user habits allowing companies to better target their audience. Using heat maps allows companies to track how people use their site. RSS feeds capture visitor information for automated updates and re-targeting follows customers wherever they go once they leave a site.

This means even if a customer doesn’t make a purchase companies are able to remain top of mind with personalized ads based on the person’s last search on their web sites. In fact, Facebook re-targeting nearly doubled its click-through rate on Cyber Monday and resulted in a 34 percent higher rate in conversions.

2014 Digital Marketing Trends

So what should companies be aiming for in 2014? Location based marketing is the number one tactic companies should consider investing in as it combines GPS technology with personalized marketing. Location based marketing speaks directly to people through their hand held devices with ads designed to trigger purchases based on the customer’s proximity to their business.

Brand building via social media will also continue to increase and is a definite must for companies who want to grow their brand and engage customers. Content curation through sites such as Pinterest, Quora and list.ly are also growing due to their ability to aggregate data to suit a customer’s needs and interests.

Video marketing and persuasive SEO content will continue to drive Google searches and retargeting will allow businesses to increase conversions like never before.

Digital marketing is a must to drive sales and convert new customers in 2014.

Brock Murray is a digital marketing specialist at seoplus+. He has more than a decade of experience with web design, web programming and online marketing. He has had great success in helping hundreds of businesses establish an online presence with the goal of increasing both brand recognition and targeted website traffic.